Aunt Jose Rivadeneira Had a Daughter with Big Eyes Angeles Mastretta * ll a i vuai il A unt Jose Rivadeneira had a daughter with big eyes, eyes like two moons, like a wish. The child had just been placed in her moth- er's embrace, still set and faltering, when she showed her eyes and something on the wings of her lips that resembled a question. "What do you want to know?" asked Aunt Jose play- fully pretending she understood the child's expression. As every mother does, aunt Jose thought there was no creature as beautiful as hers in the history of the world. She was dazzled by the color of her skin, the length of her eyelashes and the peacefulness of her sleep. She trembled with pride while imagining what she would do with blood and chimeras beating in her body. She devoted herself to gazing at the child with pride and delight for more than three weeks. Then, life unassailable had a sickness fall upon the girl that within five hours turned her extraordinary liveliness into an * Mexican writer and winner of the Rómulo Gallegos Prize for literature. I First published in Angeles Mastretta's book of stories Mujeres de ojos grandes (Mexico City Cal y Arena, 1990). Translated by Omar López Vergara and Carolina Alvarado Graeff. exhausted and remote dream that seemed to carry her back to death. When all her healing talents could not succeed in improving the child's condition, Aunt Jose, pale with terror, carried her to the hospital. There, the girl was taken from her arms and a dozen doctors and nurses, hectic and confused, began circling her. Aunt Jose saw the child leave behind a door she was not allowed to go through and then let herself fall to the floor, unable to support both herself and that cliff-like pain. She was found there by her husband who was a sen- sible and judicious man, as men are used to pretending they are. He helped her stand up and reproached her for her lack of sense and hope. Her husband trust- ed medical science and spoke of it as others speak of God. Hence, he was troubled by how unreasonable his wife's position was, unable to do any- thing but cry and curse fate. The girl was isolated in an inten- sive care unit. A white and clean place in which mothers could only stay half an hour each day. At that time it filled up with prayers and entreaties. All women made the sign of the cross over their child's face; they went over their bodies with reli-